Thursday, May 25, 2017

Executive Travel

The Executive Abroad is an interactive map which plots the overseas visits of every U.S. President and Secretary of State. The map starts in 1905 because no president traveled outside the country during their term of office before Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Panama in 1906.

If you select a President or Secretary of State's name on the map you can view all their international trips. The colored dots on the map show where the selected leader traveled around the world (the color of the dots equate to regions of the world and the size of the dots represent the number of visits to that country). You can click on the individual dots to view details about the presidential trips made to that country.

The graph around the outside of the globe shows the frequency to each part of the globe over time. The graph really shows how international travel only became common place for American leaders after 1958. As the map explains this was a result of advancements in international flight. In particular the introduction of the Boeing 707 jet for presidential travel in 1959.